When You Wake Up A Deceased 60’s Rock Star, You Have To Rock

by Hannah Means Shannon

Nicky Soh is a graduate of SCAD (Sequential Arts Degree) in Atlanta, a cartoonist of admirable skill and virtuosity, and he’s been working on a personal creator-owned comic project since 2015 that’s now funding for a complete volume of 6 issues.

Rock, Mary, Rockis one of those comics that takes the relationship that has always existed between Western comics and manga and gives it a high-energy, fresh take in a narrative that’s bound to please music fans.

The story focuses on Mary, as you might guess from the title, a young teen who “accidentally awakens the spirit of a deceased rock star”. She learns that in order for the spirit to move on to the afterlife, she has to help him fulfill his ambitions of becoming a rock legend.

Soh is someone who was equally obsessed with music and comics from a young age, and is a guitarist and vocalist himself, bringing that passion to the narrative.

You might have even come across Soh at a number of conventions, where the individual issues of Rock, Mary, Rock, have been on offer. I encountered Soh’s cool and beautifully drawn book at Denver Comic Con 2017, and am happy to see the trade collection is now ready to bring to print.